CARVED MEMORIES AND HISTORYby Kay Bournepictured: Vusi carved the portrait of himself with his twin sister after she was killed in a car crash at age 25. The sculpture was on display at the Piano Craft gallery memorial service.photo credit: Kay BourneA powerhouse of a collection, which might even be better termed a “council,” of over 50 of VUSI MADUNA‘s assemblage masks and standing wood carvings made a striking display. They illuminated the large basement area that is The Gallery at the Piano Factory, 791 Tremont Street in Lower Roxbury.

Born in Cambridge, Vusi, a resident of the Boston Piano Factory building until his recent passing, saw his art as a spiritual link to a distant African past, a link through which the wisdom of his ancestors is conveyed.

One of his public art projects is the steel sculpture “The Judge,” installed outside the Roxbury Courthouse in the Dudley Station area.

In an interview with this writer in 1989, Vusi said that the reason “there is no mouth on this piece, but all the other faculties, is that it puts the onus of admittance on the defendant.

“Human behavior is the responsibility of the individual. The piece is meant to make you deal with your own behavior,”

Vusi was thinking particularly of the young people flowing into the courts.

“What it says to them is, your father, mother, uncle, somebody told you the truth. I know you understand it. This piece is another somebody talking about human interaction, about how might is not right,” he said.

The exciting presentation at the Piano Craft gallery of pieces from four decades of Vusi‘s work, had been curated by Ekua Holmes with the assistance of his family and many artists, including Maddu Huacuja, who were friends of Vusi‘s.The work must come down to make way for an exhibition of jazz related art put up in association with Jazz Week celebrations throughout the city, however, you can see his pieces on-line if you visit the link at the end of this article, provided by AAMARP resident photographer Hakim Raquib.

Many of Vusi’s friends and his wife and two children gathered at the gallery, April 14, to swap stories about the reclusive artist who had so determinedly guarded his privacy and yet had established many firm and loving relationships.

Before longtime friend and fellow Piano Craft building resident Arnie Cheatham played a lyrical solo dedicated to Vusi, the saxophonist recalled how Vusumuzi Maduna worried that the African name that had been given him replacing his name Dennis Diddley was “such a mouthful.” Arnie told him, “just keep saying it to people and they’ll get used to it. Sometimes it’s good to be reborn.” Then, Cheatham blew Billy Strayhorn’s composition “Daydream,” a favorite of Vusi’s.

In introducing the speakers, Ekua Holmes gestured to the exhibit that surrounded them and the audience. “The star of the exhibit is Vusi,” she said,” and like stars in nature, his life’s work, his art, will continue to be with us, shining and shedding its light.”

Among the speakers were Vusi’s immediate family, his companion Lena James and their two children, now adults, Basonge James and Niamia James. Also remembering Vusi and his work at the microphone were longtime friend and fellow artist Johnetta Tinker, art scholar and director of the Museum of the National Center of Afro American Artists E. Barry Gaither, and this writer.

LALITA TADEMY BRINGS RED RIVER TO ROXBURYby Kay Bourne(pictured: Lalita Tademy at Hibernian Hall)When LALITA TADEMY left her good paying executive job in corporate America, her mother was dazed. She had a hard time believing her daughter was serious about devoting herself to writing a novel.

As Tademy recalled those days in a talk at Hibernian Hall on April 10, she said her mom phoned regularly asking if she was going on job interviews.

Then “Cane River” was published. The story, based on the lives of four generations of colored Creole slave women in Louisiana from whom Lalita is descended, immediately got noticed. Tademy was interviewed by Bryant Gumbel, a TV show her mother watched with Lalita‘s brother. Gumbel had barely signed off when the phone rang. It was her mother’s pastor wondering if she could convince Lalita to talk about her book at the church. Mrs. Tademy was impressed at last. (Later, the book was selected by Oprah Winfrey for her book club.)

Tademy‘s second novel, “Red River,” while not a sequel, is also about her ancestors who inhabited rural Louisiana. The focus this time is on some of the men in that period immediately following the Civil War who registered to vote and became active in local politics. As a result they were involved in what Tademy terms the Colfax Massacre of 1873. Segregationists had erected a statue to the three whites who died in what they referred to on the memorial as the Colfax Riot, a statue Tademy comes upon as a child visiting Colfax.

The author’s talk at the Roxbury Center for the Arts in Hibernian Hall was the third event in the Roxbury Discussion Series, which is funded in part by the Boston Public Library Fellowes Athenaeum Trust Fund. Tademy was introduced by Candelaria Silva, the director of ACT Roxbury.

The next Roxbury Discussion Series presentation brings David Hall, Esq. to the podium. The author of “The Spiritual Revitalization of the Legal Profession: A Search for Sacred Rivers” explores the role spirituality plays in the workplace. The talk, on April 23 at 7pm is free and open to the public.

EL-DABH, A ‘LIVING LEGEND’by Caldwell TitcombEgypt’s foremost living classical composer, HALIM EL-DABH, was the main focus of a five-day residency last month in the Boston area, where he received some of his formal education decades ago.

Born in Cairo in 1921, he was trained in agricultural engineering, but the pull of music was too strong to resist. He had already started composing at the age of eleven, and studied the piano and the derabucca (a goblet-shaped drum with one open end into which the left hand can be inserted to alter the sonority).

The recipient of a Fulbright grant, El-Dabh studied in the United States at Tanglewood with Aaron Copland, Irving Fine and Leonard Bernstein, and in 1953 earned a Master of Music degree at the New England Conservatory, where his composition teacher was Francis Judd Cooke, who, El-Dabh told us, “changed my life.” He then continued his work under Irving Fine at Brandeis University, where in 1954 he was the first person to receive a Master of Fine Arts degree in Music.

The first residency session, at the Conservatory, featured a performance of “Monotone, Bitone and Polytone,” for wind sextet and percussion, which El-Dabh as a student had composed for a Conservatory performance in 1952. Pianist William Chapman Nyaho, a native of Ghana, played the composer’s “Coma Dance” (1950), and El-Dabh himself performed his “Felucca, the Celestial Journey” (1953), which included the stroking and plucking of the piano strings. The next day Nyaho gave a recital of piano music by El-Dab and other African composers.

Since his Boston days, El-Dabh has amassed a huge corpus of compositions in almost every genre, for African, Asian and western instruments. Notable among them is an epic ballet “Clytemnestra” (1958) for the great choreographer Martha Graham, who commissioned three further ballets from him.

He taught briefly at Howard University (1966-69), and since 1969 has been located at Kent State University in Ohio, where he won the Distinguished Teaching Award.

On El-Dabh‘s actual 86th birthday, Tufts University sponsored a concert devoted to music by him and Armenian-American Alan Hovhaness (1911-2000), who was born here in Somerville, MA. El-Dabh played two of his piano works, “Misriyaat” and “Ifriqiyaat” (written at Brandeis in 1954). The program also included the first performance of the three-movement “The Miraculous Tale,” commissioned by the World-Wide Concurrent Premieres Fund, and played by Kenneth Radnofsky, alto saxophone, and Takaaki Masuko, derabucca.

Having spent two years teaching and doing ethnomusicological research in Ethiopia (1962-64), El-Dabh visited Harvard and taped a session there with Professor Kay Kaufman Shelemay, a specialist in Ethiopian music.

The final session was back at the Conservatory, where there was a panel discussion along with musical excerpts – video, audio, and live. Emphasis was on the electronic music that El-Dabh fashioned during a period (1959-61) at the Columbia-Princeton Electronic Music Center in New York City. We heard “Meditation on White Noise,” “Element, Being, and Primeval,” “Leiyla and the Poet,” and “Electronic Fanfare” (in which El-Dabh played the once voguish but now largely forgotten instrument called the theremin).

Though now in his mid-eighties, El-Dabh continues to exhibit virtuosity on the piano, derabucca and anything else he puts his hand to. And his ever-curious mind spurs him to compose new works without interruption.

He is the subject of a biography by Denise A. Seachrist, “The Musical World of Halim El-Dabh” (2003), accompanied by a CD containing twenty tracks of the composer’s music. A second book about El-Dabh is currently being written by his archivist, David Badagnani. This May 20th, El-Dabh will return to Boston to receive an honorary doctorate from the New England Conservatory.

QUEEN OF COMEDY REIGNS IN BOSTONby Kay Bourne Dubbed a Queen of Comedy when she debuted on a Chicago stage in 1990, comedienne ADELE GIVENS has kept that crown securely on her curly locks. With the fabulously successful Queens of Comedy Tour the tiara rested easy, and her reign continues when she became the only female in the latest of William Latham’s comedy tours, “The Crown Royal Comedy Soul Fest Tour.”

Regal, yes, but the lady can let the expletives fly, too.

O.K., she’s improvisational in her comedy act, as you’ll appreciate, should you check her out April 22 at 7 pm or 9:15 pm at the Comedy Connection in Faneuil Hall, second floor of the Quincy Market Building. And when you riff, stuff comes out of your mouth before you can clamp your lips down.

“Something happens in the club, and I just go with it,” explains Givens in a recent phone call. I react as honestly as possible and as long as I don’t feel I’m in danger, I respond.” She adds that the most frightening occurrences are fights between customers that have occurred in some venues, “but even those haven’t scared me. I guess because a club takes care of that kind of thing very fast.”

Getting laugh-built-on-laugh takes breathing power, just as it does for the jazz player riffing on a melody. “I haven’t had formal breathing lessons. It’s something I want to do but I go back and forth in my mind about taking lessons. What stops me is I’m afraid I’ll lose what I have naturally, if I study. Yet I want to pursue my art.

“It’s the advice I give when people ask about how to become a stand up comic. Take classes. Now, I don’t know how to breathe, and I want to find out.”

Well respected as the editor of nearly all of Martin Scorsese‘s major films (recently, each received Oscars for the Boston-based THE DEPARTED), Schoonmaker has shaped some of the most influential films of the past 30 years (RAGING BULL, GOOD FELLAS). This award was well deserved.

And the April 11 ceremony was everything such an event should be. Lots of film clips (everything from WOODSTOCK to Michael Jackson‘s BAD video). Brief, sometimes witty speakers reading tributes from the likes of Scorsese himself (the director traveled to Brookline the following day to serve on a panel with Schoonmaker at Coolidge Corner Theatre), Daniel Day-Lewis and Lorraine Bracco (whose performances Schoonmaker edited in GANGS OF NEW YORK and GOOD FELLAS, respectively).

The extremely well-liked film editor read a heartwarming speech she had written about her career in film, telling stories both funny (describing she and the young Scorsese racing around NYC to shoot student films without permits, running from the police) and touching (the gift Scorsese gave her that she will always cherish: an introduction to British director Michael Powell, her late husband).

All such ceremonies should run as polished and well-done as the one The Coolidge threw for Thelma Schoonmaker. It went quickly and smoothly, but wasn’t rushed. It had great heart, not unlike Schoonmaker, one of the great women of American film.

Not to give away too much (with its many twists and surprises), the film is about the transformation of Rachel Steinn, (played by Carice van Houten in a riveting performance) from young Jewish girl hiding out from the Nazis, to Ellis deVries, a spy for the Renaissance. Bleaching her hair blond, passing for Gentile, she also transforms her whole life, as she is employed by the Nazis, while secretly planting microphones inside a concentration camp.

White knuckle tension combined with unexpected humor, stunning cinematography and multiple double and triple-crosses, it’s a movie – like many of the director’s Hollywood efforts – sure to be controversial. But this time with reason: as we watch Rachel/Ellis trade sex for information, working for The Renaissance but finding herself falling in love with her Nazi boss. This is a whip-smart film that entertains almost as much as it makes one think. Great filmmaking!

Black Book screens at The Coolidge Corner Theatre until April 26. For ticket information visit the Coolidge website or call the box office at 617-734-2500.COOLIDGE CORNER THEATRE website

It doesn’t totally succeed. At three hours, it’s way too long. But are there other directors out there with as much energy and style? I think not. And entertaining it is – with huge laughs as it pays homage to low-budget drive-in fare, everything from DIRTY MARY, CRAZY LARRY to SHAFT to innumerable horror and monster movies with no-name casts.

Split into two movies – in the style of the earlier double-billed movies which the directors are imitating – with funky ’70′s style, low budget trailers that are hilarious (especially THANKSGIVING, a spoof of ’70′s horror classic HALLOWEEN), the film contains bad acting, terrible dialogue, missing reels (always the ones that contain sex), splotchy editing, bad camera work, incoherent sound and illogical plot twists. If one is in the mood for such fare – it contains some of the funniest sequences one is likely to see this year.

The first movie, PLANET TERROR, directed by Rodriguez, is a tribute to the inane zombie exploitation movies of time past. Rose McGowan is Cherry, the go-go dancer (“I am not a stripper”) who – through ridiculous plot turns – loses her leg, which is replaced by a machine gun, which then fires away (how it operates is never explained) at monsters, bad guys and, in a cameo, Bruce Willis.

PLANET TERROR also features Josh Brolin as a mad doctor and lots of zombies. The zombies actually offer performances more subtle than those of many of the human actors, such as overzealous B-movie regular Michael Biehn.

DEATH PROOF, Tarantino‘s half of the movie, centers around three women working on a low-budget horror movie (including two second generation stars, Sydney Tamiia Poitier, daughter of the Oscar winner and Jordan Ladd, daughter of CHARLIE’s ANGELS’ Cheryl Ladd) and the terror they encounter after running into Kurt Russell (hilarious as he sends up his Snake Plissken character in ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK) as Stuntman Mike, a movie stuntman and total psycho. Real-life stuntwoman Zoe Bell plays herself in this sequence.A natural, fresh screen presence, Bell holds great promise in the acting department if she chooses to explore that route.

So why is GRINDHOUSE just a wee bit disappointing? The aforementioned length, to be sure. Too much of a “bad” thing? It is scheduled to be released as two separate films in Europe, which may work better. Personally, I’m looking forward to the film’s DVD release. With the demise of drive-ins, I think it might work well viewing at home with popcorn covered in lots of butter. With the lights off, of course.

IMPERFECT STRANGERSby Mervan OsBourneDirector James Foley goes after the ever-elusive last minute plot twist that will leave audiences buzzing in this pedestrian thriller starring Halle Berry as Rowena, an investigative journalist out to nab the next huge scoop. Her target is philandering advertising mogul and all around sleezebag, Harrison Hill (Bruce Willis) who is implicated in the murder of Rowena’s childhood friend, Grace (Nicki Aycox). In order to corner Mr. Hill, Rowena goes undercover as a temp at the advertising firm where, with the help of Miles (Giovani Ribisi) her techie colleague at the newspaper, she sets out to lure Hill into a tryst and hack into his computer to find incriminating evidence that will tie him to Grace through his chat room history.

While there are entertaining moments of manufactured tension between Willis and Berry, the entrapment scheme suggests lots of intriguing film action that is sadly unrealized.

Successful use of the instant messaging device has seen some success in pedestrian horror offerings but if this film is any indication, the bloom’s off that rose; the computers serve as cumbersome intermediaries between actors attempting to establish chemistry and drama while typing away at the keys. Most annoyingly, the actors invariably speak the text as they type,fashioning thoroughly artificial exchanges.

Needless to say, Rowena is successful in her enticement of Hill but her attempts to get the goods on him are flummoxed by confusing technological problems and intercepted text messages (or something like that). Miles, a pathetic character, well played by Ribisi, blatantly and jealously lusts after Rowena and sabotages her budding relationship with her dead friend’s ex-boyfriend. Turns out Miles’ infatuation with Rowena is nothing short of an obsession, but is it a murderous obsession? Oooh! Wouldn’t you like to know?

Willis is entirely unchallenged by this one-note role; his scenes play like sitcom bits, while Berry‘s seem lifted from over-dramatic soaps. Berry is embarrassingly paraded in the semi-nude throughout in discomfiting, eyeroll-inducing titillation shots. To be sure, Ms. Berry is a beautiful sight to behold on screen but the director’s exploitation of her body minimizes her effectiveness and masks a deeply flawed and convoluted script.

Rumor has it that three separate endings implicating three different perpetrators were filmed and if this was the best option, the other two must have been god- awful.I give Perfect Stranger 1.5 stars.

UP-COMING EVENTSThe Theater Offensive presents “SURVIVING THE NIAN” by Melissa Li and Abe Rybeck, now until MAY 5 at Roberts Studio Theatre at the Boston Center for the Arts, 527 Tremont Street, Boston. Fireworks explode, and not just because its Chinese New year! Kaylin returns to Hong Kong for the first time in five years, bringing her lover Asha, and a new life plan. But her family has plans of their own for her! Featuring Abria Smith, Mariko Kanto, Megumi Haggerty, Hyunsoo Moon, Gary Ng and Judy Tan. For ticket information call 617-933-8600.

DISCOVER THE ART OF NATURE DURING APRIL SCHOOL VACATION WEEK AT THE MUSEUM OF FINE ARTS, BOSTON until Friday, APRIL 20, the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (MFA) hosts the Cogan Family Foundation Vacation Week Adventures with “The Art of Nature.” All events are free for children 17 and under with paid adult admission. For further information call 617-267-9300.

Wheelock Family Theatre presents “WINNIE-THE-POOH” now until May 13 with a visit to the 100 acre woods with Christopher Robin, Piglet, Eeyore, Rabit Kanga, Roo and Tigger too! Especially exciting for little ones under 8 years old. Tickets are $23 – $15. For full schedule and ticket information call the Box Office at 617-879-2300.

ACT Roxbury presents the Roxbury Discussion Series featuring Mr. David Hall, Esq., author of “The Spiritual Revitalization of the Legal Profession: A Search for Sacred Rivers.” on Tuesday, APRIL 24 – Free at Roxbury Center for Arts at Hibernian Hall, 184 Dudley Street. Reception at 5:30pm Discussion at 7pm. This presentation will explore the role that spirituality plays in the workplace. Many people of faith struggle with how they can relate their religious traditions to the work they do and to the careers they pursue. Employers and employees have been exploring ways to bring more meaning and satisfaction to the workplace. This lecture will explore how this can be done in a meaningful and productive manner. Copies of the book will be available before the talk.

“A YEAR WITH FROG AND TOAD” opened APRIL 14, with performances on Saturdays and Sundays and during the school vacation week until MAY 6, in the Paul Revere Room at the Grand Lodge of Masons of Massachusetts, 186 Tremont Street (at the corner of Boylston Street) . Ticket are $18, $15, and $12 and may be obtained by calling (617)424-6634 or visiting the Boston Children’s Theatre website here .

The Providence Black Rep presents the world premiere production of DONE, a new play based on interviews with over one hundred teenagers. Celebrate Opening Night on Friday, April 20 at 8pm.Pre and post show receptions will feature fine wines from M.S. Walker, and refreshments from Apsara, Blaze Eastside, and Edible Arrangements. DONE is a realistic depiction of a group of teens and their culture of vulnerability, social pressure, music, humor, sex, violence, and a genuine longing for human contact, and runs until May 20 at The Providence Black Repertory Company, 276 Westminster Street, Providence, RI Click here for more information.

MUSIC FOR THE CANVAS presents A KRUMPING BATTLE, hosted by MIGHTY CYRUS with special guests MEGATRON and SHALLOW! on APRIL 21, 6-10pm at Cambridge YWCA, 7 Temple Street, $10 at the door. Face painting for children. Click h ere for information.

W. E. B. Du Bois Institute for African and African American Research, University Committee on Human Rights present Wole Soyinka, 1986 Nobel Laureate in Literature speaking on “Darfur: Anything To Do With Slavery?” Monday, APRIL 23, 5pm at the Tsai Auditorium, CGIS 1730 Cambridge Street, Harvard University. Free and open to the public. For more information, call 617-495-3611.

Jamaicaway Books presents a Latin Jazz & Poetry Book Release Party on APRIL 27 with SUGARFOOT Latin Jazz playing at 7pm, Book Release poets BECKY THOMPSON and others reading from ‘Fingernails Across the Chalkboard: Poetry and Prose on HIV/AIDS from the Black Diaspora’ at 8pm, and open mike at 9pm. $7.50 adm. On-site childcare, for info call 617-983-3204.

FIRST LOOK reading series presents “SHOE SHINE SAFARI” by Black Rep Affiliate Artist John Oluwole ADEkoje, directed by Lois Roach. The reading is open to the public and will be Monday, APRIL 30, at 7 p.m. at The Providence Black Repertory Company 276 Westminster Street Providence, Rhode Island. Info: 401-351-0353. Don’t miss this chance to see the Black Rep’s acting company take a first look at a brand new American play – and let the playwright know what you think in a post-show discussion. Shoe Shine Safari is the story of a Kenyan teenager from the slums of Naroibi who aspires to immigrate to America and shine shoes for a living. This iconoclastic play addresses issues of assimilation and migration, taking an irreverent yet piercing look at how the new global economy affects the culture and tradition of the African world.

W. E. B. Du Bois Institute for African and African American Research presents Arnold Rampersad a Sara Hart Kimball Professor in the Humanities at Stanford University, regarding “The Enigma of Ralph Ellison” Book-signing and discussion on Tuesday, MAY 1, 6pm at the Harvard Book Store, 1254 Massachusetts Avenue. Free and open to the public. For information, please call 617.495.3611.

CHITA RIVERA stars in the role she was born to play! Newsweek hails her as “the greatest musical theater dancer ever!” Now, direct from Broadway, two-time Tony AwardÂ® winner Chita Rivera is coming to Boston’s Colonial Theatre in a dazzling new musical that celebrates her astonishing career for a limited engagement. CHITA RIVERA: THE DANCER’S LIFE will play The Colonial Theatre for one week only, MAY 1 – 6. Tickets on sale now from Ticketmaster at 617-931-2787.

The Museum of Fine Arts Film Program is proud to present a 5-show engagement of Ritu Sarin and Tenzing Sonam‘s feature film, “Dreaming Lhasa”, MAY 4 – 20. This gripping film first screened at the MFA as part of the Human Rights Watch International Film Festival in January. This narrative film looks deeply into both Tibet’s past, present, and future. Tickets are $8 for MFA members, senior citizens and students, and $9 for general public. Call the MFA Box Office at 617-369-3306 for information.

DONAL FOX: MASHUPS IN BLUE For one night only, Friday, MAY 18. for two shows: 7:30 PM and 10:00 PM. “Fox’s band has the Modern Jazz Quartet’s poise and John Coltrane Quartet’s power.” –The Boston Globe. Featuring Donal Fox on Piano, Warren Wolf on Vibraphone, John Lockwood on Bass and Terri Lyne Carrington on Drums at The Ragattabar at The Charles Hotel in Cambridge. Call 617 395-7757 or click here .

Afro-pop Diva, ANGELIQUE KIDJO of Benin performs at Somerville Theatre, 55 Davis Square, on Saturday, MAY 19 at 8pm. For tickets and information call World Music at (617) 876-4275 or Click here for information.

About The Color of Film

The Color of Film Collaborative is a non-profit organization that supports and fosters the individuals and organizations in the creation of diverse images of people of color in film, video, theater and other media, by providing artists with opportunities to exhibit, distribute and find funding for their work, as well as provide a supportive environment where they can share and develop their ideas, their vision and their work with their peers. About Us

Roxbury International Film Festival

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